The Review Report for Friday, March 29th

This Week's Review Report

Two films getting released today already appear on Criticwire’s list of the best indie movies of 2013 so far; another one is not far off. There’s also a few prominent wide releases as well, so The Review Report is here to help you narrow down your options.

“‘Room 237’ brings the realms of film theory and conspiracy theory a bit closer together. It’s some work, more play and a generally unique look at the fine line between watching a film and seeing deeper into it.”

“If it weren’t for actions as careful and fine as a police chief picking up money with a tissue, you might think Cianfrance and his writing partners Ben Coccio and Darius Marder have crammed too many stories into one.”

Winner of 10 Goya awards, “Blancanieves” (“B+”, 32 ratings) is a tribute to silent-film and a re-telling of “Snow White:”

“Within this black-and-white magical plot is the story about a girl who needs to face enemies that haunted her coming-of-age journey and learns how to turn failures into successes and grows up ready for anything that life may bring.”

“Watching ‘Blancanieves’, one is struck by the painstaking composition of each shot and the care taken to perfectly match every note of Alfonso de Vilallonga’s score Furthermore, the lack of award season recognition for Kiko de la Rica’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography is nothing less than a crime.”

“Wrong” (“B”, 34 ratings) is a compelling and divisive attempt at surrealism:

‘Wrong’ is, at some level, an experimentalist’s attempt at disrupting the dominance of narrative, and Dupieux’s inventiveness is undeniable. But I finished the movie with a new quiver of doubts about the possibilities of Surrealism, and renewed conviction that its limits are what caused it to pass out of fashion.”

Lovers of French Cinema and Jean Renoir should check out “Renoir,” (“B-“, 9 ratings) which offers a fictional look at the Renoir family:

“‘Retaliation’ is no masterpiece, but it’s a movie whose fun doesn’t feel like a four-letter word — popcorn entertainment that not only rivals what you see during summer, but surpasses what you see from Sommers.”

“There’s some nifty art direction here, notably the labyrinth of caves where the humans are hiding out, but ‘The Host’ feels so polished and passionless that one might think that it was the product of one of the bland aliens.”